A defiant Pato O’Ward driver of the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet says he won’t apologise to six-time series champion Scott Dixon following the clash on lap 20 of Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
I am not going to apologise for that.
O’Ward went on to have a difficultday coming home in 17th and speaking following the action he said:
”It’s just one of those weekends. You’ll have great weekends, you’ll have decent ones and you’ll have miserable ones. Today didn’t start off too bad, but the race result is completely on me. I’m sorry to let the team down. I had a great race car. In the second half of the race, we didn’t have anything to fight with because of how much we were saving fuel to make it to the end. Definitely one to forget, and on to Barber – one of my favorite places
It was a difficult day for Alexander Rossi who started the race 11th and made good progress before being forced to retire on the final lap and was classified in 22nd.
Supremely disappointing. The car was fantastic for the race. I think we finally found what we’ve been missing so far this year from a performance standpoint in the warmup. It was a good race, and then what happened at two laps to go is unfortunate. Ultimately, it’s really disappointing because the car was so good. The team did a great job, and we’ve just got to take the positives from this and move on to Barber.”
Felix Rosenqvist came home in seventh from tenth on the grid.
“P7 here at Long Beach. We came from P10, so it’s a good day. It’s not a fantastic result, but we’ll take it because it brings us back in the game in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. It was a bad day for my teammates. I felt bad for Alexander and Pato. It was a big fuel-saving race, and we got stuck a little bit in the first stint, but in the second and third we were really strong and made some good decisions. It was fun in the end, good racing and happy to be back in the points. Now, we move on to Barber.”
McLaren Racing Director Gavin Ward said:
Frustrating day for the team, a long day particularly for Pato and Alexander. Racing can be pretty cruel at times. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, and we have a lot to learn from today. Felix drove a great race, and he made the most of what he had. It was tricky to make hay the way the cautions fell. He did a great job there. Alexander was on for a great finish until the issues on the last lap. The team needs to look into that. We don’t fully understand what was going on there yet, but it’s a real shame because he also had a pretty strong race pace and was making the most of what he had. Pato’s race, he had a little spin there, and we were really looking strong. That first caution hurt his strategy a bit, and we kind of ran out of tires there and that put us in an awkward position on fuel save. It is what it is.”
The team head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this weeks two day open test ahead of the Indianapolis 500 and will be joined by Tony Kanaan.